1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to tip-up fishing devices, and more particularly to signaling systems for such devices operative to signal a fisherman that a fish has struck the tip-up device.
2. Related Art
Various indicating devices are known to the art for signaling a fisherman to the event of a fish striking a tip-up fishing device. The standard device employed with most tip-up fishing rigs is in the form of a flag carried on an elastic flag pole which is held in a bent over ready position until such time as a fish strikes which actuates a trip mechanism that releases the flag and allows it to spring to an upright position and thereby visually alerting the fisherman that a fish has struck.
One of the advantages of a tip-up device is that the fisherman does not need to continually tend the rig in order to fish, and thus relies on the action of the flag to alert the fisherman to a strike. However, the fisherman may not always be in sight of the flag and may check it only periodically to see if the flag is raised. As such, the fisherman stands to lose an opportunity to catch any fish that strike in the interim.
Various prior art devices have been devised to provide some means of alerting the fisherman to the occurrence of a fish strike by other than the flag pole itself. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,419 discloses a mercury switch that is carried on the flag pole which transmits a signal to a remote receiver when moved to an upright position. U.S. Pat. No. 5,097,618 shows a similar device in which a magnet is clipped to the flag of the flag pole and is pulled free from a receiver to open a switch when the pole is released by a fish strike. Both such devices mount all or part of the transmitter device on the flag pole.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,996,788 discloses another such device in which a transmitter is mounted on the tip-up frame and is fitted with an electrical contact which engages a metal coil of the flag pole when it springs to an upright position to close a circuit and transmit a signal to a remote receiver. However, under conditions of heavy snow, freezing rain, or the like, such a device could fail to work since as snow or ice would build up on either the flag pole or electrical contact, it would impair or completely disrupt the metal to metal contact needed to close the circuit.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome or greatly minimize the disadvantages of the known prior art.